TrainACE - IT and Cybersecurity Training Blog

Paul Ricketts

Originally from the UK, Paul Ricketts is the Director of Marketing at TrainACE in Greenbelt, MD. Having started out in the field of Geographic Information Systems, Paul has a wealth of experience in a wide variety of industries, focused on tech., graphics and data analysis. Having finally settled in the field of marketing, he has spent the last 8 years fine tuning his skills in the art of communication and persuasion.

Recent Posts

Companies need IT expertise. Recent data suggests that by 2020, more than three-quarters of organizations will “experience visible business disruptions due to skills gaps.” Just two years ago, only 25 percent of businesses said the skills gap was an issue.

For IT professionals, this creates a high-demand marketplace: Both specialists and generalists are necessary for companies to achieve line-of-business goals and drive ROI. One potential career for technology experts is the computer systems analyst. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than 600,000 systems analyst positions were filled in 2016 alone, while the median salary last year was just under $90,000.

Wondering how to become a computer systems analyst? We’ve got you covered.

Not all hackers are cybercriminals. Increasingly businesses are employing ethical hackers (also known as white hat hackers) to break into their computer networks to expose vulnerabilities. Ethical hacking has become a mainstream niche within the IT Industry, employing a highly skilled cohort of programmers and computer experts. In this info-graphic we lay out the differences between black hat and white hat hackers, differentiating between cybercriminals and ethical hackers.

Ethical hacking and cybersecurity are currently one of the most exciting and rewarding areas of the IT industry to work in. The field continues to grow at a fast pace, and with a broad skills gap between the employees today's businesses need and the available pool of people skilled in cybersecurity there is a tremendous opportunity to establish yourself in a lucrative and fast-paced career.

The cyber skills gap is widening: Recent data suggests a shortfall of more than 3 million IT experts in the next three years. What does this mean for your business? Looking for new staff to meet expanding tech requirements may not be possible — instead, companies are better served bolstering current employee experience with the right mixture of on-site training and classroom-led learning.

Virtual classroom training is on the rise — recent data from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) reports more than 528 full-time virtual schools across the United States serving almost 300,000 students. So it’s no surprise to see this carry over into the workforce, especially for information technology professionals; virtual IT training offers companies a way to keep staff on-site while they earn certifications or refresh needed skills.

IT classroom training, meanwhile, gives employees the chance to go hands-on and get practical experience in their chosen field of study, experience they can leverage when they’re back managing local server stacks and handling security issues.

What’s the best fit? Let’s dig into the pros and cons of virtual training and live classroom offerings.

Human interaction remains the single biggest threat to businesses as they attempt to secure their networks from cyber-attack. Increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks represent the dominant way in which cyber-criminals manipulate employees within small and large businesses, to open their networks to malicious activities. It's not surprising then, that venture capitalists are paying close attention to the cybersecurity awareness training market.

Cyber security is a growing field, with more than 350,000 open positions in the United States alone. What’s more, cyber and information security professionals often enjoy above-average salaries, autonomy and upward career mobility.

But how do you make the shift from front-line or mid-corporate IT to grab a lucrative cyber security career? Here are five tips to boost your chances of landing the job.

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification acts as the standard measure of competence for all project managers regardless of their industry of operation. It, therefore, follows that any individuals who are serving in project related fields such as IT and Cybersecurity would benefit significantly from formal project management training.

But why should a programmer, network engineer, or help desk technician take project management training? Especially if they are relatively new to the industry?

Looking for a challenge? Think you have what it takes to be an information security professional? CompTIA's Security+ is the industry standard when it comes to cybersecurity certifications!

The internet is a continually-changing environment where digital threats evolve and seek to erode, compromise and destroy networked systems or even steal essential and sensitive information from these systems. The need to further enhance network security has never been higher, with the demand for people qualified to fill in gaps within organizations at an all-time high.

In May the EC-Council announced it had achieved a major milestone in its efforts to set standards for cybersecurity training and certification. Both the Certified Network Defender (CND) and the Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator (CHFI) certification programs received accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

The CompTIA Security+ SY0-401 exam is officially slated to be replaced by Security+ SY0-501 exam on July 31, 2018. Initially released in October 2017, SY0-501 reflects the continuing evolution in the cybersecurity environment. We are pleased to announce that TrainACE is adopting this new version of Security+ in its training schedules.